A more common practice, in most urban communities at lease, is for debtors to discharge their obligations with bank checks. In that case the local bank, supposing for simplicity there is but one, becomes a clearing house for the settlement of local accounts. As the checks come in, the bank's bookkeeper merely credits the amounts of the checks to the accounts of those who present them and charges the same amounts to the accounts of those who drew them. It often happens that during the same day the maker of a check will deposit, for credit, checks of other persons which have been paid to him by his debtors. We might extend this illustration until it should become extremely complex. Yet two facts essential to a proper understanding of paying trade debts would remain unaltered. (1) Many obligations are discharged in modern industrial society without the direct payment of money. (2) Ultimate trade balances must always be paid in money.